It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that lacrosse is a fast growing sport. It will further be appreciated that lacrosse heads are essential to playing the game. A lacrosse head is a collection, catching, or basket-type, element that attaches to the end of a handle, or lacrosse stick. The lacrosse head is usually molded from polymers, such as duPont Xytel brand nylon. The lacrosse head has an open, or upper, side for catching and discharging a ball and a lower side to which a net or pocket is attached for holding the ball. A lacrosse head has a throat section that includes a ball stop for impacting a ball and a socket for receiving the handle. A pair of sidewalls is attached to the throat section proximate the ball stop and are joined distal from the throat section by a lip or scoop.
In the game of lacrosse, the head is used to catch the ball, hold the ball, and pass or shoot the ball. To this end, there have been several attempts to improve the lacrosse head to enhance the playing of lacrosse.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,037,841, 4,270,756, and 6,561,932 disclose the use of cushioning materials placed on the internal surfaces of a lacrosse frame near its base at the ball stop.
Prior art attempts have been made to reconfigure the sidewalls and the ball stop area to improve the performance of a lacrosse head. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,935,026 and 5,651,549 issued to Dill et al disclose a lacrosse head in which the majority of the head, all the head except for the portion of the head proximal to the throat, lies on a plane below the stick.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,925 discloses an upper wall and a lower wall in which both the upper wall and lower wall curve away from the plane, have a curved base, and then curve back toward the plane.
Some players desire a lacrosse head that is narrower at the opening than at the pocket area such as lacrosse head disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,549. Other players desire a lacrosse head where the open side of the lacrosse head is larger than the net side of the lacrosse head such as the lacrosse head disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,066,056 and 6,561,932. The '932 patent also discloses a recessed ball stop that creates an angular shoulder along the lower side. However, this angular shoulder causes some people to believe that the shoulder holds the ball too well and illegally impedes the ball from rolling out of the head. Further, a ball dynamically contacting the shoulder will do so on either a flat portion or an edge. Dynamic contact with the flat portion does not direct the ball into the net or pocket. Dynamic contact with the edge causes the ball to act in a less controllable and less predictable manner. Further, the '932 patent discloses sidewalls that are essentially vertically-flat until they curved outwardly between the middle and upper portion thereby creating a substantially flat section in the middle to lower portion. When the ball dynamically contacts this flat portion, the ball is directed toward the opposite sidewall.
Other prior art patents have tried to focus on the attachment between the pocket and the frame of a lacrosse head. These patents normally focus on the movement of the various crosspieces, shooting strings, and runners of the pocket through the openings in the frame. Most of these prior arts attempts fail to appreciate various orientations of the tabs or protrusions extending from the frame to which the pocket is attached.
What is needed then is an improved lacrosse head having improved attachment design for the pocket to attach to the frame of a lacrosse head. This lacrosse head can improve the response of the pocket based upon the orientation of the attachment pieces to which the pocket connects to the head. This needed lacrosse head is presently lacking in the art.